2/9/13

Update: Building things to build things

The week's over once more, and this time I plan to capitalize on my freedom. The plan is to work on a good, well structured map editor for future games. There are a few things to do:

I need a list of features to implement. To be honest, I'll probably start with Halberd's feature list and work from there.

I need to create a tilemap format. I could use an existing format, but that would limit me greatly. Making my own lets me pick and choose what things to store, and how.

I need to structure it well. If I do a poor job now, It'll come back to haunt me later. Check out my projects page, and see how often I end up refactoring my code. That's something I want to avoid.

I need to actually do it! Talk will get me nowhere. That's why I chose to do it now, rather than later.

You might also wonder why I need to make a map editor when I have so many other projects. To continue working on AMAZE, I need levels. My best bet is to write the editor first, and then some loading code. That way I only have to write code once.

While I'm at it, let me post some sprite work for this month:

One of my friends was just grabbing sprites off the web for his Game Tech projects, so I offered to draw him an enemy. It didn't quite turn out how I wanted, but he seems to like it. Also, you may notice that I've begun using some mild dithering in my sprites. I'm not very good at it yet, but I like the look.